Criminal screening is separate from credit and rental history, so a clean credit report won’t overcome a blanket denial policy. What matters is the specifics: felony versus misdemeanor, charge type, and recency.
What matters most
Charge severity: misdemeanors like an old DUI, drug possession, or theft under $500 are much easier to place than felonies.
Charge type hierarchy:
- Drug, theft, fraud, DWI, DUI: most commonly approvable
- Assault, robbery: harder but often placeable with time and documentation
- Sex offenses, arson: near-universal denials
Recency: most communities require five to seven years since sentence completion (including probation or parole) — not since the conviction date. Older records get easier every year.
Deferred adjudication in Texas: not a formal conviction, but some screening reports still show it. Read our deferred adjudication apartment screening guide for the specifics.
The HUD 2016 guidance
In 2016, HUD issued guidance that blanket criminal denials may violate the Fair Housing Act because of disparate impact on protected classes. Some Texas property managers adjusted their policies to individualized assessment — considering the specifics of your record instead of auto-denying any conviction. Many haven’t.
That policy split is the whole game. We track it. Read more in our HUD 2016 criminal background guidance guide.
How we solve it
We track which communities accept which charge categories specifically. We know the difference between blanket-denial and individualized-assessment property managers. We advise on documentation:
- Sentence-completion letters from the court or probation office
- Probation-discharge records
- Character references from employers, clergy, or long-term landlords
- Rehabilitation evidence (completed programs, steady employment, community ties)
For compounding issues — criminal + eviction + bad credit — we identify the narrow set of Texas communities that will consider multiple risk factors. See our eviction apartment locating and bad credit apartment locating pages for those tracks.
What to bring us
- Charge type and disposition (misdemeanor/felony, deferred adjudication, dismissed)
- Sentence completion date (not conviction date)
- Any documentation you have
We’ll match you to a targeted Texas community list within 2-4 business hours. Free.
